The last 1 on 1 battle between them didn't end so well for us. Sr version of Mason would stomp him though
BeddieKU23
31745 posts
Townsend says in a game the pressure is different for Josh then in practice. So mentally Josh is getting nervous and not being "free". I really wonder if they will try and either slow down his routine or speed up his routine. Without bending his knee's it seems the inconsistency we've seen all season is just the way its going to be. We need him to finish the rest of the season hitting 60+%, not 40%
Going to be an impressive career for Frank when its all said and done. Top 10 in points and assists is something I never imagined he would have at the end of his career. Even more improbable is the POY talk.
He's going to win the Cousy award for best PG, he's already cemented 1st team All-American, Big-12 POY, 1st team Big-12, 1st team Big-12 defensive team. If he added POY, Final 4 MVP and a National Championship he will have a strong case for one of the best hawks to ever put on a jersey. Crazy!
Kusports ran an article on it. They think its mostly mental with him. Says he shoots 90% in practice.
His 3 point % increased when he stopped thinking about it. Maybe he should get the ball at the line and just shoot it. Jack Gibbs at Davidson shoots it immediately after getting it, he's like 80%.
The problem starts and ends with Jackson.
For Jackson the issue should have been corrected when he got here and worked on from there. I'm really not sure repetition is the key with him, there is clearly some mechanic issues they need to fix on his shot. Having said that, I expected him to be better in clutch time and he hasn't. The only area of his game I've been frustrated with.
Its crazy sometimes how seasons go.
I do agree that we haven't dominated at home like we usually have and finally played so poorly on one side of the ball where we lost. We either play a team that is amped to play us, or we play down to the competition and skate by on talent.
The non-conference schedule ended up not being strenuous. Coach was worried that maybe this team wouldn't know how to deal with adversity or win close games. That worry has been eliminated, we've had plenty of adversity and close games that we have prevailed in. More on that later
Conference play again has been a world war. I mean it feels like we are not getting to breathe anymore in any game. Half the conference is so consumed with beating KU but its hard to motivate our players to bring the same emotion to playing them. The level KU is on is so different from the level every other Big-12 program is on no matter how good Baylor/WVU have been recently. The round robin schedule and the conference win streak has reached its bursting point.
Now in a way I think all these close games make KU even more dangerous in March. We know this team won't back down from a fight and we know we have a few players that have a refuse to lose mentality (Mason/Jackson). I hope that in a heavyweight battle game deep in the tournament these guys are able to live in the moment and realize we got this- we've been here plenty of times before. That is my hope at least.
The issue I possibly see is that the close games are exposing how small our margin of error is. If we don't get our starting 5's best game every night we could lose any game/even in March. Without depth, suspensions, injuries we are walking on eggshells just trying to escape each game healthy enough to make it to the next.
I mentioned McGusty as an option for them but he's more of a Combo Guard. The kid has put up double figures in 10 of 11 conference games. I'm not sure he's an ideal replacement to Woodard as his assists numbers are not great but OU doesn't have any great options going to their backups.
Bill Self should win this battle if he's the great recruiter we all say he is and gets credit for. This is like Nike Saban at Alabama locking in on a guy and not getting him, when does Saban ever lose guys he personally goes after. OU basketball is not KU basketball and therefore we shouldn't lose out on Trae when pretty much everything the kid thinks is important to where he plays favors KU.
Yes I remember him.
Funny the talk of his dad. When Trae did his official they played Ray Young highlights of him playing KU. That has been talked about in interviews by the Young's as something that stood out to them on how KU was recruiting him. Smart move, might pay off.. I don't know what else Self could possibly do to make him go here.
Mason gone, Graham most likely gone, catered his whole offense to guards this season. Mason POY season. If Trae wants to be elite he comes here
No idea what option he is.
Just sounds like KU is the latest program to enter the picture. The talk is he might be able to move into the 17 class in the right situation. If he doesn't then he will be a heavily recruited 2018 option. I imagine the East Coast schools will have an advantage with him. He went from having offers from Brown and Rhode Island among others to KU, Nova, Cuse, UConn, etc. Tells you how much he's improved his game.
I'm sticking with him going to KU.
Why wait all this time to pick the hometown school?
He said he wanted to see how the teams after him were doing on the court.
OU crapped the bed, KU is a top 5 team again.
He said he wanted to see how teams used their guards.
What have OU guards done for Kruger this year? Mason is a front-runner for POY. We have successfully run a 4 guard offense all year. Self is adaptable.
Obviously both schools offer immediate playing time. It's a wash there
He said he wants to win and play in packed gyms. He will not get both consistently at OU. KU plays a sell out at home and on the road.
I can't speak for OU's Strength and Conditioning program but nobody beats Hudy, nobody. The kid needs the weight room. She can help.
In the end I think he waited this long so that he didn't receive a ton of backlash locally when he goes out of state. Just my opinion..
I can't blame his father for wanting to be involved, especially since he's been through it himself. Now the exposure his son has gotten with the social media days is just crazy. I don't see anything wrong with his dad's involvement but making headlines is something you have to question, at least a little bit. It will all be over next week and we'll probably never hear about his dad again
The want meter just went up 100% after that 2nd video. He's definitely a 6'4ish guard now.
I see coaching has worked on his shot. In his soph film he dipped his head before going up, now you see the long release as one smooth transition.
I don't think many national people have seen him. He was at a small school before Cushing. If he doesn't re-classify he's probably one of those guys that just shoots up the rankings. Reminds of Vick in his situation.
I knew someone would be here with the reference!
That's a good one! very true
on 247 ranked 173rd in the country. Switched schools to Cushing Academy this year a known D-1 producer.
Another vid, his coach says he was 5'6 as a freshman and now pushing 6'4,6'5
He is currently. He, athletically could be a 4 star. Being in the 18 class for right now but willing to move up in the right situation.
KU has offered 6'3 Combo Guard David Duke. Could possibly be a reclassify to 2017.
Currently a 3-Star guard. Very athletic from video I found.
Schools after him (KU) Nova, Cuse, UConn, Florida, and NCST.
He could be well on his way towards that status
You could take his rant about OU sportswriters a few weeks back as a sign of a diva father living in the glory of his All-American son now. Whether or not the Young's have a legitimate grip to pick with them is one thing, but how many dad's are this involved and this vocal? Not many..
If he doesn't pick KU next week then I'll question why he even bothered going on a KU sports radio show to talk about his son possibly committing to KU in the first place.
There was a recent story about ESPN in regards to the 1 playoff Football game they got between the Raiders/Texans. ESPN paid an absurd amount of money to get 1 game and the projection was they would lose an absurd amount of money.
!upload-6c8746e0-d390-48e4-b5de-c0dc9879ec2e ↗
Googled it real quick and find they will lose $75 million. How can anyone be happy about that or stand to lose that much money. Something has to change.
To further dive into the topic I started losing respect for ESPN and in particular Sports-Center when the highlights were no longer the most important part of the show.
If there is a scandal/controversy/anything negative going on in sports that is their #1 story for days/sometimes weeks. Not only does it become a center piece of Sports-Center we get all the afternoon programming from outside the lines to pardon the interruption talking about the same 5 things while regurgitated by different sports writers. It gets old really quick hearing the same content, none of its original anymore.
Tell me how good Skip Bayless was for ESPN. One controversy after another. Maybe he did drive viewership up because all he did was use his mouthpiece to disrespect Lebron James or whatever other star he felt like attacking. It should never be okay for the "world-wide leader in sports" to have its most outspoken people bad-mouthing the athletes that give them a job in the first place, or the countless millions of young kids that are looking up to these guys as role-models etc. Steven A Smith is just as bad, how fun can it really be for the average sports fan to want to listen to his constant mouth all day every day.
Getting a little off that current topic, ESPN has clearly made bad business moves to get where it's at. It almost reminds me of the Blockbuster/Netflix situation. Blockbuster held the market for so long but Netflix saw the long term vision and look how that has worked out for each. I think ESPN missed the long term vision in how people would like to view sports, got too big to change with the market, especially how social media and streaming media has taken over. The ESPN app has been a great addition, something I use almost every day but still ESPN is missing what it can capitalize on. It also sounds like ESPN has alienated cable television providers by slapping more costs to them because of lost subscribers. That's how you lose even more viewers when you blame others and squeeze the middle men and the trickle down affect is more costs to the consumers.
Great Move by KU to give Hull a raise and promotion.
LSU fired their RB's coach and this move by KU was very smart to avoid him bolting. Imagine all those Louisiana guys know seeing Hull at LSU..
Had a 40 point game again the other night. I believe he tied Adam Morrison for the lead in such games in a season. Crazy good
So some interesting comments made in the Radio Interview Trae's father did.
Why would he go on Rock Chalk Sports if his son was going anywhere else?
The whole family seems well versed in the Big-12. With his father playing at Texas Tech they know everything about this decision coming up.
He hasn’t made a decision yet,” Ray Young told Nick Schwerdt during a 15-minute radio interview. “That’s one thing I can tell you. He’s still praying about this thing every night.... I would be lying to you if I said that I’m not ready for this thing to be over with, but, at the same time, I’m kind of sad too because we really care for all these schools that have been putting in their time recruiting him. It’s gonna be a bittersweet day when we have to tell a couple of those schools no.”
Ray Young went on to explain just how difficult the entire process has been for Young, who appears to be weighing the decision of staying home and becoming the next great Sooners savior or joining the Jayhawks and competing for a national title on a stacked roster.
“Now it’s at the point where he just wants to make sure whatever school he goes to it’s a good fit for him and he’s gonna have the role that he deserves, that he should have,” Ray Young said. “Kids these days, they want to step on campus and have an impact from Day 1, especially a kid like Trae, one of the top two or three point guards in the nation, a McDonald’s All-American. So he wants to go play right away and make an impact and help the team win. I’ll be honest, one thing about Kansas is they’ve got Frank Mason playing the point and he’s a senior, that’s very intriguing to my son. Why wouldn’t it be intriguing to any senior in high school?”
While all of those factors, and so many more, have weighed heavily on Young’s mind during this whole process, Ray Young said Self’s style and the manner in which he has gone about recruiting Young have been refreshing and made things much easier to handle.
“It’s been a really, really tough decision,” Ray Young said. “But Coach Self’s been great. He doesn’t put any pressure on Trae, he just tells it like it is and tells him what his role’s gonna be and now it’s up to Trae.”
The part about Self's style of recruiting him being refreshing is what stood out to me. It almost feels like he's implying the Oklahoma schools have put too much pressure on him to stay home and that may drive him out (which would be in line with the Comments his father made weeks ago about OU sportswriters).
I'm still confident he lands at KU. This is why Self gets paid the big money, he has to be able to beat his fellow Big-12 coaches for the best talent.
That could be a likely scenario, he's a top 20 player for a reason. Jerry Meyer from 247 thinks he will be a 2 year player when asked the other day by a fan whether they thought he was a OAD.
One of them did say that. Looks like UCLA was able to weasel the first visit.
Not really sure why he'd go to them when they have Wilkes/Ball at SF coming in, plus Riley/Hill at the 4.
I may have jumped the gun saying he would commit but there hasn't been much talk about Smith and what his decision timeline was or if he was the type that would pop after 1 visit.
I believe it would make him the first.
At his current rate catching Sherron Collins is within reach. I can see his scoring average going up as we hit March because this team is really going to rely on him.
Brutal, if only they had tried for the first 10+ minutes of the 2nd half like they tried at the end.
@Crimsonorblue22 said:
31 pts, 5 boards, 6 dimes, 2 steals, and a block leading team to a win over Toronto.
Him and Towns stats will look crazy most games without Levine. Definitely a big game for him though.
@Crimsonorblue22 said:
Listening to this Baylor osu game is a nice change of pace! No cheerleading or judging.
Too bad OSU sucks tonight. Baylor is not their superbowl.
And yes it's so noticeable how different the commentary is
I really have the utmost hope for Doke so I share some of the optimism that others may about him. When I take my KU blinders off and focus on the player and not where he plays I see a lot of growth to come in order to convince any NBA GM he's worth taking after next year.
Given his size/athleticism and age he's a very attractive option for the grab and stash method teams often do with Euro's. Lottery does not seem like an option unless he comes out in a weak draft and he significantly improves his shooting touch. With the way he shot FT's I'm not sure a radical change will ever occur, but countless hours of working on it will be needed.
The good thing with Doke is we know he's not going to be a guy that's shooting jump shots so most of what the KU staff can do with him while he's still on campus is strictly in the paint B2B moves, awareness etc. I'm excited what he will be able to improve on once he does get fully healthy because he did seem to be picking things up quicker then say Diallo did. I think we also saw a swagger and toughness to Doke that I think will help facilitate his improvement and we certainly saw flashes of that this year.
We know he can rebound and protect the rim at well above average levels. We saw him dedicate his mentality to getting into shape by losing 30+ pounds in just one off-season. There is further growth to be made with his body this summer. I'm sure Hudy will be excited to work with him yet again. I expect there is further improvement that will come with Doke becoming all man muscle.
Some of the things that don't get put on paper that Doke will have to prove in College is guarding Pick N Roll's, general post defense without fouling every possession and awareness on switches. I bet a lot of the stuff he learned in his first season were new to him due to his situation. In High School he just dunked everything and roamed the paint on defense.
I expect this discussion of Doke will be something we will have to re-hash at a later date because he certainly has a bright future if he puts the work in.
Seems like the smoke is for UCLA as they are getting him to visit this week. Wouldn't be surprised if he commits
I think some people think they are vulnerable in the early rounds for the disparity in their offense to defensive efficiency.
Good way of looking at it. How likely is that given the injury and his timeline for getting back on the court?
I used to really look forward to Fran calling our games. He is always knowledgeable about everything in the Big-12 but as you stated I don't know what changed. We've talked enough about maybe his son going to OU being the change or secretly being sick of KU's team/fans being on top of the mountain for so long that he's really playing up the underdog mentality.
I know he has great respect for Bill Self but I don't feel like he has any respect for his job on how he portrays his views on air. You can literally dissect Monday's game and how many times he's trying to coach Kansas St on a play to score/defend etc. His style of announcing has worn out its welcome.
I honestly don't blame them. I wish I didn't have that view of him but its so blatant to see every-time he calls one of our games. Fran needs a long "timeout" from KU games.
Tarc lived about an hr from my hometown, he was from a very small town where D-1 big-time offers are not common. I made the trip to see some of his games as a KU fan wanting to know what KU was potentially getting (and ended up not getting). All the buzz from the area was that Tarc was going to make it big. He was a Top HS player who dominated with size and enough offensive skill to think he would be a very good College player. For whatever reasons he just didn't develop into a dominant player and the evaluations on him ended up not being accurate. Its tough to say whether KU would have been able to maximize his hype coming in, sometimes the kids themselves just don't have what it takes to keep progressing.
And I agree about Doke, he's played so little basketball and he was literally only scratching the surface this year in the games he was able to play. There is significant promise but not enough to say Lotto pick after next year, I think that's an unfair expectation to put on him. How quickly we forget how bad his FT shooting was or how almost all his offense came off lobs. His rebounding/rim protection were solid and things we miss currently. I think that aspect of his game will be easy to rely on next season. What strides he makes offensively is really key for him.
Very true, ESPN has been on a down trend for many years now. Some very questionable business decisions have finally trickled down to the bottom line.
Having said that, for my enjoyment and for others that feel the same way removing Fran from KU games would be the best move ESPN could make in years!
Good point and Tarc was a player that wasn't particularly skilled coming into College and really never got to the point where he could be drafted early. I do think Doke has a significantly different ceiling to Tarc, given his young age, athleticism and general lack of time playing the game to date.
My money is on Fran being the biggest pile of it!
Was it Svi that thought he would be here 2 years or the media over-hyping him? I always thought that the hype surrounding him didn't match what was real.
Doke is on record saying he wants to stay 2 years. The injury does open the possibility up that he won't be ready to leave. I really hope he's around more then just next year.
Interesting you think he's a 4 year player. But I do get the point you were trying to make and if KU or OU was lucky to have him 4 years its hard to imagine the fan-base not being excited and proud of him. I'm extremely high on his potential and impact at the College level. He's a stud and there's a reason Self has followed him for over a year trying to sign him. I don't want to play against him, we will not be happy if we have to.
If you put his measurable's on the table for the NBA they will say no way he leaves early.
His elite shooting ability IMO says he can make the league early if he maximizes the S&C system in College and perfects the craft of being a leader. This is what Steph Curry was able to do and look where he's got.
If he signs with KU I hope he puts on a solid 10-15 pounds of muscle before the 1st game. He needs it to handle the Big-12 guards and the tough non-conference games we play.
I don't see how Doke will be a lottery pick with his current skill set. Name a lottery pick recently that was as unpolished and as unrefined of a shooter as Doke? You won't find one I looked.
Playing only 11 games and being out until mid-summer does not help him become a "beast". Just voicing my own opinion here as it seems like conventional wisdom that he's going to be so much better after missing all that game action and off-season work.
I'm a huge Doke fan but he's got a long ways to go and for a player that thinks he's a 2 and done he's going to have to prove a lot to get there. This would be the perfect kid to stay all 4 years and maximize playing and mastering his skill in the post.
If he comes here Hudy will be his best friend as well. She would have fun transforming his body for his benefit. I hope that he seriously considers all the advantages of coming here, not only for the short term but his whole career.
Woops got that mixed up!
that would be a great night. I think more likely WVU holds serve at home and OSU upsets Baylor.
Would be great if Oklahoma St could win tonight.
I agree either a good defensive team or a good offensive team to exploit their poor defense is UCLA's Achilles heel.
Chino Hills the team the Ball's have played for won 61 straight HS games until losing to Oak Hill and Billy Preston's team last week. The method has worked including winning on the AAU circuit. Chino plays a national schedule as well. Not that I'm trying to defend their style of play or how its negatively affecting their reputation or how coaches feel about them but these kids are winning. It's unorthodox to say the least and I'm sure in some capacity the style will be mimicked.
Lonzo played the same way and is leading UCLA to a great season and will be a Top 3 pick.
Wasn’t there a college players that score an unreal number of points not too long ago?
I believe you are referring to d-3 Grinnell with Jack Taylor from 2012